ABSTRACT
Facemasks are personal protective equipment worn to reduce the risk of the transmission of Covid-19. University students and teachers/lecturers in Serbia are required to wear facemasks in class at all times. However, such practice may cause challenges in student-teacher communication. We present students' experiences regarding speech intelligibility in the educational setting. We distributed an anonymous online questionnaire among students from various universities. Speaking with a facemask in class creates communication challenges for teachers and students alike. Students claim that teachers often have difficulties understanding students who speak wearing masks;teachers often ask students to repeat the sentence, and teachers often ask students to speak louder. Similarly, when teachers talk with their facemasks, students often report not hearing or understanding teachers back. In turn, students would ask teachers to repeat the sentence and raise voices. Students pay more attention to teachers' facial expressions, hand gestures, body language, and tone of voice. Students tend to engage their non-verbal interaction skills more often to facilitate communication. We further discuss the differences regarding students' gender and the type of facemask typically worn. We express concern that the inability to communicate clearly may cause annoyance and frustration in the academic setting. © 2022 Internoise 2022 - 51st International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Optimal mental health is a global and increasingly pressing issue. Major events in recent times, such as the effects of global warming and the Covid-19 pandemic, have had undeniable negative effects on people's well-being. The mental health of young people is of particular importance: strategies to deal with adversity are learned and developed at this stage of life. Success aids the likelihood of being a lifelong resilient and hopefully flourishing individual, whereas difficulty may leave an individual vulnerable to slipping into persistent mental ill health. Given this, there seems an obvious and necessary role for educational institutions in promoting such strategies and thus improving the well-being of students. Positive psychology has a valuable contribution to make in this regard, as achieving optimal mental health is perhaps its primary purpose, and positive psychology interventions (PPIs) are broad-based and cost-effective to implement when compared with more traditional clinical approaches. They are also technology friendly, meaning they may be disbursed widely. The research in this thesis explores the use of several PPIs in school and university settings with the aim of building significant and lasting well-being improvements for young people. It works to find the most effective interventions and to understand what makes them so. Finally, it seeks to create real-world value by considering how such interventions may be designed and implemented in an educational context. The thesis comprises four studies. The first study used a positive diary exercise in a sample of primary school children. The exercise resulted in a significant increase in happiness and reduction in depressive symptoms during and up to three months after the intervention. A tertile split revealed interestingly different response profiles for participants depending on baseline well-being. A similar intervention in the second study found significant associated improvements in academic performance. The third study applied two PPIs in samples of undergraduates. The first part also used the diary exercise, which found there to be less convincing evidence of its effectiveness when compared with the first two studies. The second part used a signature strengths intervention, which resulted in marked and sustained improvements in self-esteem and life satisfaction. This study highlighted the differing outcomes that different interventions may have, particularly across age groups. It also raised questions as to why certain well-being markers improve more or last longer than others, suggesting that an individual's sense of autonomy or control may be a factor. These questions shaped the fourth study, which was more exploratory. It used a novel exercise-framed PPI to determine whether a sense of control, as measured by judgments of contingency, is linked with well-being, and whether positively manipulating such judgments might lead to improvements thereof. The complexity of the experimental paradigm meant that findings were inconclusive in this regard, but it opened the door to future work that might be able to distil more robust effects. Overall, this thesis finds that PPIs demonstrate huge promise for mental health improvements and that they are a feasible option for incorporation into an educational curriculum. However, it seems they are not universal aids and careful consideration needs to be given to the type of intervention used and who the target recipients are. Age and baseline well-being are two important factors, for example. If properly implemented, PPIs could be valuable tools to build resilience and enable young people to flourish now and through the rest of their lives. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
As the world experiments with multiplex approaches to achieve a free pandemic society, infodemic pillages the online and offline realms, which exacerbates the spectrum of media fragilities, especially for particular age groups. Misinformation and disinformation related to health, political, and social issues, among others, deter the thin line that demarcates official reports from fake news. As a response to the COVID-19 infodemic, a curriculum and competency framework for media and information literacy can help promote a critical understanding of communications content for people to become media literate citizens. Incorporating the framework in the political and educational spheres enables the people, especially the dominant media users, to reinforce reliable information through responsible content-sharing on media platforms, which is essential for public health safety.
ABSTRACT
Optimal mental health is a global and increasingly pressing issue. Major events in recent times, such as the effects of global warming and the Covid-19 pandemic, have had undeniable negative effects on people's well-being. The mental health of young people is of particular importance: strategies to deal with adversity are learned and developed at this stage of life. Success aids the likelihood of being a lifelong resilient and hopefully flourishing individual, whereas difficulty may leave an individual vulnerable to slipping into persistent mental ill health. Given this, there seems an obvious and necessary role for educational institutions in promoting such strategies and thus improving the well-being of students. Positive psychology has a valuable contribution to make in this regard, as achieving optimal mental health is perhaps its primary purpose, and positive psychology interventions (PPIs) are broad-based and cost-effective to implement when compared with more traditional clinical approaches. They are also technology friendly, meaning they may be disbursed widely. The research in this thesis explores the use of several PPIs in school and university settings with the aim of building significant and lasting well-being improvements for young people. It works to find the most effective interventions and to understand what makes them so. Finally, it seeks to create real-world value by considering how such interventions may be designed and implemented in an educational context. The thesis comprises four studies. The first study used a positive diary exercise in a sample of primary school children. The exercise resulted in a significant increase in happiness and reduction in depressive symptoms during and up to three months after the intervention. A tertile split revealed interestingly different response profiles for participants depending on baseline well-being. A similar intervention in the second study found significant associated improvements in academic performance. The third study applied two PPIs in samples of undergraduates. The first part also used the diary exercise, which found there to be less convincing evidence of its effectiveness when compared with the first two studies. The second part used a signature strengths intervention, which resulted in marked and sustained improvements in self-esteem and life satisfaction. This study highlighted the differing outcomes that different interventions may have, particularly across age groups. It also raised questions as to why certain well-being markers improve more or last longer than others, suggesting that an individual's sense of autonomy or control may be a factor. These questions shaped the fourth study, which was more exploratory. It used a novel exercise-framed PPI to determine whether a sense of control, as measured by judgments of contingency, is linked with well-being, and whether positively manipulating such judgments might lead to improvements thereof. The complexity of the experimental paradigm meant that findings were inconclusive in this regard, but it opened the door to future work that might be able to distil more robust effects. Overall, this thesis finds that PPIs demonstrate huge promise for mental health improvements and that they are a feasible option for incorporation into an educational curriculum. However, it seems they are not universal aids and careful consideration needs to be given to the type of intervention used and who the target recipients are. Age and baseline well-being are two important factors, for example. If properly implemented, PPIs could be valuable tools to build resilience and enable young people to flourish now and through the rest of their lives. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: In England, the emergence the more transmissible SARS-CoV-2 variant Alpha (B.1.1.7) led to a third national lockdown from December 2020, including restricted attendance at schools. Nurseries, however, remained fully open. COVID-19 outbreaks (≥ 2 laboratory-confirmed cases within 14 days) in nurseries were investigated to assess the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and cumulative incidence in staff and children over a three-month period when community SARS-CoV-2 infections rates were high and the Alpha variant was spreading rapidly across England. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional national investigation of COVID-19 outbreaks in nurseries across England. Nurseries reporting a COVID-19 outbreak to PHE between November 2020 and January 2021 were requested to complete a questionnaire about their outbreak. RESULTS: Three hundred and twenty-four nurseries, comprising 1% (324/32,852) of nurseries in England, reported a COVID-19 outbreak. Of the 315 (97%) nurseries contacted, 173 (55%) reported 1,657 SARS-CoV-2 cases, including 510 (31%) children and 1,147 (69%) staff. A child was the index case in 45 outbreaks (26%) and staff in 125 (72%) outbreaks. Overall, children had an incidence rate of 3.50% (95%CI, 3.21-3.81%) and was similar irrespective of whether the index case was a child (3.55%; 95%CI, 3.01-4.19%) or staff (3.44%; 95%CI, 3.10-3.82%). Among staff, cumulative incidence was lower if the index case was a child (26.28%; 95%CI, 23.54-29.21%%) compared to a staff member (32.98%; 95%CI, 31.19-34.82%), with the highest cumulative incidence when the index case was also a staff member (37.52%; 95%CI, 35.39-39.70%). Compared to November 2020, outbreak sizes and cumulative incidence was higher in January 2021, when the Alpha variant predominated. Nationally, SARS-CoV-2 infection rates in < 5 year-olds remained low and followed trends in older age-groups, increasing during December 2020 and declining thereafter. CONCLUSIONS: In this cross-sectional study of COVID-19 outbreaks in nurseries, one in three staff were affected compared to one in thirty children. There was some evidence of increased transmissibility and higher cumulative incidence associated with the Alpha variant, highlighting the importance of maintaining a low level of community infections.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Nurseries, Infant , COVID-19/epidemiology , Child , Communicable Disease Control , Cross-Sectional Studies , Disease Outbreaks , Humans , Infant , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
The coronavirus pandemic that spread throughout the world during 2020 and 2021 caused enormous upheavals in workplaces and educational settings. Most educational establishments were forced to rapidly switch to online methods of course delivery and student assessment, which presented a challenge to programmes with practical laboratories and project-based learning. This paper presents the approaches that were taken to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 on the practical laboratories for two analogue circuit design modules at University College Cork (UCC). The practical learning outcomes for these modules were facilitated by use of ADALM2000 Active Learning Modules combined with small modifications to make the best use of the kits. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
In the crisis, we are facing, the well-being of the students is given importance in their online learning. Attention has already been given as to how the school may support in making the parents mentally healthy as they assist their children in learning. The Philippines is already entering another online academic school year as part of the health and safety protocol during this pandemic. But with all the challenges experienced by the stakeholders, the education sector is also facing a problem as to the well-being of the teachers who are also struggling in this pandemic with all the changes in their routines since online learning began.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Education, Distance , Child , Education, Distance/methods , Humans , Learning , Pandemics , StudentsABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Schools and preschools have largely remained open in Norway throughout the pandemic, with flexible mitigation measures in place. This contrasts with many other high-income countries that closed schools for long periods of time. Here we describe cases and outbreaks of COVID-19 in schools and preschools during the academic year 2020/2021, to evaluate the strategy of keeping these open with infection prevention control measures in place. METHODS: In this descriptive study, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health initiated systematic surveillance for COVID-19 cases and outbreaks in schools and preschools in October 2020. Data was compiled from the national outbreak alert system VESUV, municipality websites, and media scanning combined with the national emergency preparedness register Beredt C-19. An outbreak was defined as ≥ 2 cases among pupils or staff within 14 days at the same educational setting. Settings were categorized as preschool (1-5-years), primary school (6-12-years), lower secondary school (13-15-years) and upper secondary school (16-18- years). We reported the incidence rate among preschool and school-aged pupils and gave a descriptive overview of outbreaks and included cases per educational setting. RESULTS: During the whole academic year, a total of 1203 outbreaks in preschools and school settings were identified, out of a total of 8311 preschools and schools nationwide. The incidence of COVID-19 in preschool- and school-aged children and the rates of outbreaks in these settings largely followed the community trend. Most of the outbreaks occurred in primary schools (40%) and preschools (25%). Outbreaks across all settings were mostly small (median 3 cases, range 2 to 72), however, 40 outbreaks (3% of total) included 20 or more cases. The larger outbreaks were predominantly seen in primary schools (43%). CONCLUSIONS: We observed few large outbreaks in open schools and preschools in Norway during the academic year of 2020/2021, also when the Alpha variant was predominant. This illustrates that it is possible to keep schools and preschools open even during periods of high community transmission of COVID-19. Adherence to targeted IPC measures adaptable to the local situation has been essential to keep educational settings open, and thus reduce the total burden on children and adolescents.